Steve Cran Receives 2021 Permaculture Elders Award
In the 1970s, the concepts of what is now known as Permaculture were originally developed by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in Tasmania.
And from that same corner of the world, the first awards for significant contribution to the world Permaculture community, the Permaculture Elders Awards, were first announced at the 2015 Australasian Permaculture Convergence, APC-12.
To obtain this recognition, nominees must be Australian or New Zealand citizens, be at least 55 years old, and/or achieved at least 25 years of active Permaculture Design involvement, including service in the international arena or Australia and/or New Zealand.
Among this year’s ten recipients of the Permaculture Elders Award is Steve Cran. Steve is one of the three founders of Permaculture International College (PIC) and the International Permaculture Education Center. The other founders are Steve Hart and Alan Enzo, all Permaculture designers and consultants in the lineage of Permaculture’s founder, Bill Mollison.
In the early days of Permaculture, Steve was asked by Bill Mollison to lead a Permaculture Aid project in Australia’s Northern Territory. No easy assignment. As the world’s first “Permaculture Aid Officer,” Steve entered the world of emergency services without a fleet of special 4W backcountry rigs decked with aftermarket bling, nor porters to carry his gear. (In fact, he responded to one crisis with only seeds in his carry-on.) Ultimately, he developed various specialized field training courses to enlist communities to cooperatively and collectively orchestrate environmental recovery in locations without remaining bridges, supermarkets, SuperStuffStores, or online-cheap supplies. Galleries of photos are online (see Notations), illustrating the depth of the words “available resources.” Natural disasters abound tsunamis, earthquakes, war/ conflict zones, systemic, pervasive poverty, and climate change. They rest squarely under the umbrella of needing Permaculture Aid and people to carry the training onward. Rebuilding community in ways that will not recreate the disaster, but mitigate unknowns, requires a concerted global effort.
In a 2012 interview, Steve ironically referred to his ten years in the Australian bush as ‘becoming a bit of a nature child”. He has since shared the skills of his backcountry experience blended with Permaculture ethics with diverse groups of “x-guerilla fighters, prisoners, mentally ill…all kinds of people including shopping center people.” (4) For a direct gaze into Steve’s good-natured irony, read a blog post, “Ethiopia not Utopia,” Oct. 2017 at www.greenwarriorpermaculture.com.
The Permaculture Field Schools have been international, including Timor Leste, Indonesia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, USA, and Aboriginal communities in Australia. In addition, he often teaches and administers internships, Train-the-Trainer courses, and youth programs at the Green Warrior Eco-Farm in the Philippines and other Southeast Asian locations.
The Green Warrior Eco-Farm and Field School (Mablad, Antique, Philippines) is a continuing site for international student training and is an organic functioning organic farm.
Within the fundamental specialization which Steve has integrated and honed, within his willingness to go to ends of the earth to share it, he also expresses deep respect for the life of animals. He considers the modern animal industry as very cruel and unethical. He stressed that to kill an animal ethically, it must be done in a way to not create fear, with no pain and no waste. (4) That is a tall order in societies where meat is presented on a plastic-wrapped plastic single-use plate or on the wall forever staring blankly into space gathering dust, both much removed from the actual being who has suffered unto death. Compassion is its only blessing and curse, perhaps. The Earth’s need for Permaculture Aid persists with urgency.
In addition to helping direct the International Permaculture Education Center, Steve has a variety of courses that work to spread Permaculture vision and methods. Current projects:
- A 10-week on-site (Green Warrior EcoVillage) internship followed by a 2-year mentorship (designed for those who have already completed a 72-hour Permaculture PDC Course);
- A 2-week “Train the Trainer” module on teaching styles and techniques with co-teaching opportunities as a cadet teacher. With incremental experience, the Trainer is certified to open their own Permaculture Field School and work independently or choose to join a guild. In Permaculture Design, a guild is a group of designers uniting to assist in a given project or supporting Permaculture in their local bioregion to allow specialization in the various skill sets required for extensive projects;
- A 10-week Climate Change Adaption Technology Specialist (CCATS) apprenticeship is also available as a stand-alone course for individuals who already have experience or want to participate in climate projects. CCATS’ purpose is to train participants in the skills they will need to recognize potential disasters and redesign for unknown future changes, or as Steve puts it, “ to prepare and be ready to get hammered”. (10)
- Centre of Advanced Permaculture: Completion of Crystal Waters Permaculture Village in Queensland Australia with new website for this project. (7)
Detailed information and registration for these and other courses are online at https://www.greenwarriorpermaculture.com.
The goal in all the training courses is to have real skills for long-term sustainability, not feral survival. In his discourses, Steve repeatedly emphasizes the fundamental need to create solutions that do not re-create the same disasters and/or perceive expected failings and design to mitigate them once identified. And that is the precision of Permaculture applied: to evolve a fluid, discerning perspective that succeeds because it accepts the present reality, no matter how grim, and not only acknowledges the immediate but chooses to integrate with forces of nature and community to adapt positively.
“Permaculture Aid gets real results by helping the people restore their own community using local resources. They grow their way out of poverty. Conventional aid creates aid dependency. Most poverty is brought about when a county, city, or community’s ecosystem is depleted or destroyed. True regeneration can only be achieved with a fully intact, productive ecosystem. Repairing the ecosystem, as well as the people’s lives, has to be the main aim of a sustainable aid project.” (Steve Cran, 2017)
The Permaculture Education and Permaculture International College staff applaud the acknowledgment of Steve’s life-long dedication to applying Permaculture ethics and methods globally. Congratulations for an award well-deserved by dedicating decades of your life to empower communities in increasingly turbulent and uncertain times with tireless creativity.
Congratulations, Steve Cran; it is a pleasure to know and work with you!
NOTES
(1) https://permacultureaustralia.org.au/apc-australian-permaculture-convergence/elders-and-community-service-recipients/
(2) http://permaculture.com.au/permaculture-honours-its-elders/
(3) https://permacultureeducation.org
(4) Green Warrior Steve Cran Apr 30, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA79zQ_WjpM)
(5) Tour of Green Warrior Eco School, Mablad Barbaza Antique Philippines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcB7PQ0xq_8
(6) https://permacultureaustralia.org.au/2021-permaculture-service-awardsannounced/
(8) What is CAP? Aug. 2019. https://youtu.be/H4sA98918zc
(9) https://www.greenwarriorpermaculture.com/
(10) https://permacultureaid.tumblr.com/
(11) https://permacultureaid.tumblr.com/ aftermath Typhoon Yolanda
(12) Photos: permacultureeducation.org /permacultureaid.tumbler.com
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